


Meet You One Day

by JosRose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Multi, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-22 14:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11381823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosRose/pseuds/JosRose
Summary: This is a white board soulmate AU with the Voltron: Legendary Defenders cast. Klance is the main focus, but others are brought in.





	1. Chapter 1

            Lance had always known his soulmate would be a little different; after all, he wasn’t exactly normal either. So, on his first day at the Garrison, when he received the simple line of text on his left forearm that read _Starting a new school today; I hate everyone_ , he wasn’t too surprised.

            _Don’t be like that. I’m sure there’s someone who isn’t horrible._ Lance hated when his soulmate would be moody, which happened to be most of the time. Lance had never met his soulmate, and they had decided to keep their names secret until they met in person for the first time. So, for two years they had conversed back and forth with lines of text now and again, but they both knew that their new high schools would leave them little time to write to each other.

            _No,_ his soulmate replied. _Everyone sucks. There’s a boy staring at me._ Lance let his gaze drop from the boy with the dark mullet who sat across the room with his nose stuck in a notebook.

            _Well, you better make sure he keeps himself at a safe distance. I’m not having anyone bother MY soulmate_.

            The neat cursive script that replied to Lance’s last message seemed to be laughing as he read it. _Well, now aren’t YOU the possessive one, and of someone you haven’t even met yet._ Lance gave a little chuckle and was about to respond when another message began to take shape on his skin. _I have to go now; classes are starting and such. Meet you one day_.

            _Meet you one day,_ he replied.

            As the school year progressed on, Lance didn’t hear as much from his soulmate as he would have liked. But he understood. They were both studying to be pilots, but he had not asked which school the other was going to. So, Lance knew how strenuous the life of a flight academy student was, and he let it go.

            One day, Lance could barely contain his excitement as he pulled the cap off of his soul-pen and began to scratch out a note on his left ankle (in class and trying not to get caught, he couldn’t write in his usual spot on his arm.

            _Got moved up to a fighter pilot today, mí corazón._

            _I’m happy for you, babe. Look, I left school._ Lance almost fell out of his chair when he read the response, but before he was able to respond, more words took shape on his inner ankle. _Don’t worry. I’ll be fine, the school just wasn’t the right fit for me. I’ll let you know when I’m settled in. Meet you one day._

            The familiar sign off told him that no matter what he wrote, he wouldn’t get a response any time soon. Lance couldn’t believe it. His soulmate had gone on and on about flight school; being a pilot was all they had ever wanted, and now they had just given all of it up.

            Three days later, there was a hasty line of cursive inscribed on the back of his hand. _I’m okay. Found a place to stay, and I’m going on an… archaeological dig. It’ll be fun. How’s school?_

            Lance sighed with both relief and regret as he began his awkward scribbles. _I’m really glad to hear from you, and to know that you’re doing ok, except that I thought you hated history… As for school... We got our flight teams the other day and had our first shot at the simulator… I crashed… Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a pilot._ He hadn’t meant to write the last part, but it had just kind of flowed out of the pen onto his arm like that.

            The response was quick to appear, and the words seemed urgent. _Don’t you dare think like that. You have had your heart set on being a pilot ever since we first started talking, and now you are there doing it. Don’t you dare let a simulator tell you that you aren’t good enough._

            This brought a smile to Lance’s features. _As you wish, mí corazón._ And Lance never let a simulator get him down again; not even when he crashed every time.

 

            Days passed with no word from his soulmate, and then days turned into weeks. One day during a mandatory flight crew lunch that Lance had ordered, Lance found himself asking the communications expert, Pidge Gunderson, about archaeological digs and how long they might last.

            Pidge, not being familiar with archeology, seeing as how he was a computer geek and not a history buff, merely shrugged, as he also did not want to be spending his lunch with these two cadets anyway.

            Hunk, the crew’s engineer, however, was more than happy to put forth his thoughts on the matter in a rush of words that seemed too fast for such a large teen. “You know, I was reading this book a couple years ago in primary school back at home, really, though, I was reading at a high school level, so I don’t know why the librarian stuck me with a book from the fourth-grade section. I mean, I was in fourth grade, but I obviously was way smarter than your average fourth grader and…”

            “Hunk!” Pidge generally didn’t raise his voice, and he didn’t generally talk much to his crew when he wasn’t in the simulator, so the outburst made both other boys at the table shut up and look at the short ginger kid sitting at their table. “Get to the point, I have better things to do than sit here, and the sooner you two get done talking about whatever it is you are talking about, the sooner I can return to my work.” The smaller boy sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest with a scowl on his face that said he was quite done with the “mandatory flight crew lunch.”

            “Oook,” Hunk began again. “Well, I was reading this book, and it took a couple years for the archeologists to find what they were looking for…” Hunk’s voice trailed off. And Pidge gave him a questioning look. “What?”

            “Seriously, that’s all you had to say?”

Hunk gave a shrug and then looked back at Lance. “So, why are you all interested in archeology now?”

“Well…” Lance wasn’t really sure how to begin. “My soulmate has wanted to be a pilot all their life, and they went to flight school…”

“Oh, which one?!” Hunk blurted out.

“You see,” Lance continued. “I don’t really know. My soulmate and I have never met, and I don’t know a name. We thought it would be fun that way, you know? Keep it a surprise for when we do meet. But anyway, so they were in flight school, and a month ago, just when I was moved up to fighter class because that hot head Keith got kicked out, I received a message saying that they had left school for their own reasons, and a few days later they said they were going on an archeological dig. And, well, I haven’t heard from them since…”

“So, you’re worried? About that?” Hunk seemed shocked, like it was such a trivial matter.

“Yeah,” Pidge, put in. “I had to learn a completely new language to talk to mine.” The youngest boy pulled the high collar down on his jacket to reveal a series of ones and zeros imprinted on his neck.

“What the heck kind of language is that,” Lance cried in shock.

Pidge, looking affronted and a little self-conscious, allowed his collar to cover the string of numbers once more. “It’s binary code. Computers use it. The number sequences mean different characters.”

Lance’s face seemed disbelieving. “You’re telling me that your soulmate only writes to you in computer code? Or are you saying that your soulmate is a computer? Because I could believe it…”

“You’re both ungrateful,” Hunk butted in. “Look at what my soulmate writes to me!” He shoved his right arm out for the other two’s inspection. There, on his wrist, were four neatly drawn words; however, the bizarre thing was, the words were written in a language none of them had ever seen before. “You are worried about going a month without any word,” Hunk went on. “I have gone my entire life without being able to translate one word of what they have written to me.” The strange characters looked like old runes, but not any that had been covered in an Ancient Earth History class.

Lance and Pidge both looked down, both feeling sorry for the giant, lovable marshmallow who was Hunk.

“Look,” Pidge began. “I can try to write a program that could search for a translation, if you want me to. I think it may take me a week or so, though…”

Hunk didn’t even take the time to speak after his brain fully comprehended what the younger boy had offered; he just pulled Pidge into a bone-crushing hug, from which the younger boy desperately was trying to escape as Lance simply sat back and laughed at the show.

Three nights later, Lance found himself and his two friends on a cliff overlooking the site where his childhood hero had crash-landed an alien ship and was now being held prisoner by the teachers at the Galaxy Garrison.


	2. Chapter 2

Keith had never fully believed in the power of the soulmate bond. But when his soulmate had started writing to him two years previously, he figured he may want to start. So, he wrote back. By the chicken scratch handwriting, Keith assumed that his soulmate was a male, but that was all he knew. Keith refused to know a name, or where he lived. He didn’t want to believe that the universe could determine his future. But he knew his soulmate was probably just like the rest of the world and believed in the mumbo jumbo whole-heartedly. Which is why he continued to correspond with his soulmate. But when he left the Garrison, he couldn’t face that bond any more.

With talking to this boy for two years, the only thing they had found in common was an overwhelming desire for them both to become pilots. Keith thought this to be merely a coincidence. So, when he was expelled from his only chance to become a space pilot, he could not face the boy who had shared his dream for two years.

He hadn’t planned to tell his soulmate anything after he said that he had left school, but upon finding the shack and the ancient cave paintings and carvings, he decided that the best way to keep his soulmate from trying to talk to him anymore was to lie.

 _I’m okay. Found a place to stay, and I’m going on an… archaeological dig. It’ll be fun. How’s school?_ Keith didn’t really want to know how school was, because this boy was still living the dream that they had written to each other of late at night for hours.

The response was not what Keith had expected. His soulmate was distraught. He didn’t think he was good enough. Keith knew that feeling all too well, and it pulled painfully at the strings of his heart. The cap was off the pen and he was writing again before he even had a chance to think about what he was doing.

_Don’t you dare think like that. You have had your heart set on being a pilot ever since we first started talking, and now you are there doing it. Don’t you dare let a simulator tell you that you aren’t good enough._

The response brought a sinking feeling to his chest. _As you wish, mí corazón._ The first time his soulmate had called him that, Keith hadn’t had a clue what the other boy meant. But after a quick computer search, he came up with two things: (first) it was Spanish, and (second) it meant “my heart.”

At first, he had been mortified and angry. This boy didn’t even know him, and was calling him “my heart.” He, Keith, who didn’t even believe in the power of soulmate bonds, was being given a mushy nickname by the person he didn’t even believe was truly meant to be the one true match to his own heart. But deep down inside, Keith could not bring himself to ask this boy not to call him that, because, every time Keith felt inadequate and unloved by his own family, there was always a short message on his body somewhere that said those two powerful words, “mí corazón.”

When he told his soulmate that he would be on an archaeological, that was the last time he ever expected to talk to the boy who had grown surprisingly important to him. And the use of that stupid, mushy nickname only made Keith hate himself even more.

 

After rescuing Shiro, being kidnapped by a robot lion, flying through a wormhole, and sneaking onto an alien ship to try and bond with yet another robotic lion, Keith wasn’t really having the best of days. Granted, he never really had good days anyway, but this one took the cake. The fight against an alien warship seemed a little more than any of his teammates were ready for, even when they did join together to form a massive robot. The fight was hard won, and Keith was ready to fall into his bed and sleep for a week. But the newly formed team of Paladins had decided to have celebratory dinner for their first hard won battle.

That was when they were introduced to Rover, the small Galra drone which Pidge had been able to hack into and befriend. About halfway through the meal, Rover began making various chirping and whirring sounds, and, shortly after that, Pidge about jumped up from his chair waving his arm in the air frantically. Shiro finally was able to catch the boy’s wrist and reveal a neatly printed line of numbers from Pidge’s soulmate.

  _0100 1001 0111 0100 0010 0000 0100 1001 0111 0011 0010 0000 0100 1110 0110 1001 0110 0011 0110 0101 0010 000 0101 0100 0110 1111 0010 0000 0100 0110 0110 1001 0110 1110 0110 0001 0110 1100 0110 1100 0111 1001 0010 0000 0101 0011 0110 0101 0110 0101 0010 0000 0111 1001 0110 1111 0111 0101 0010 0001 0101 0010 0110 1111 01111 0110 0110 0101 0101 0010_

Lance leaned across the table and stared at the paragraph that took up most of Pidge’s inner wrist. “What the heck is that?”

Pidge pulled his arm away from Shiro’s grip. “It’s my soulmate! I finally found my soulmate!”

The rag-tag group looked on confused as Pidge began cuddling with the robot that had been hovering over his left shoulder.

“Wait…” Hunk Began. “You mean to tell me that your soulmate is a robot?!”

           

When Keith finally was able to return to his rooms that evening, he clumsily shucked off his Paladin armor and practically fell into bed. As he lay there on the verge of sleep, a warm throbbing on his wrist caught the attention of his groggy consciousness. He sat up, and looked down at where the new words from his soulmate were forming.

_Hey, just wanted to let you know that I took a trip with some friends and found a job as a peace officer. It is pretty cool. I hope you are doing well and enjoying your time digging in the sand… I miss you, mí corazón._

Keith didn’t know what to say. He was lightyears away from anything that humanity had ever encountered, and here were these words. Through some awesome power, his bond to this stranger was still as strong as ever. He slowly pulled the pen out from his red jacket where he always kept it just in case and began to write.

_I am alright. No longer at the dig. Found a new job with a robotics company. What happened to being a pilot, I thought that was your dream?_

_That was OUR dream_ , came the reply. _It never felt right without you._

Keith couldn’t help but stare at the words that lay on his forearm. Why? Why had he done that? Keith couldn’t respond. His heart was too heavy. Because of him, this boy would never live up to what he had always dreamed of. Because Keith had lied, he had ruined the life of his soulmate. Keith couldn’t bare it. He capped the pen and threw it across the room before lying back down and pulling the covers up over his head.

 

The party was going great. Keith was actually enjoying himself while hanging out with Hunk and Lance as the Arusians celebrated the great victory of Voltron. Then, out of nowhere, Lance decided that he needed to take a walk. Keith didn’t care. He was still enjoying himself there with Hunk.

 

Lance sat in the control room, twirling his soul-pen between his fingers. He hadn’t heard back in a while from his soulmate, and he hoped everything was ok… But more than that, he missed Earth. He missed his home, and he missed the connection he had had with his soulmate before going to the Garrison… Lance looked up and out at the night sky from the castle’s massive windows. His soulmate… somewhere, some thousands of lightyears away, his soulmate was out there somewhere…

 _Hey…_ he began. _Just wanted to tell you that I miss you. And I don’t know when I’ll be around to finally meet you… I’m pretty busy here, you know. Saving the day and keeping the peace. But, I WILL meet you one day._ Lance was trying to be funny, but he only managed to make himself feel worse.

Then Coran came in and showed him just how far away he really was from his corazón, which only made Lance feel ten times worse. Then a bomb shaped like Pidge’s soulmate exploded, and he was thrown into a sleeping consciousness, and he wasn’t exactly sure what happened after that.


	3. Chapter 3

Keith sat impatiently outside the healing pod waiting for Lance to wake up. It had been several days since the attack on the castle, and in that time Keith hadn’t exactly been paying attention to the skin where his soulmate usually wrote to him due to the fact that the Galra had infiltrated the castle, Pidge’s soulmate had shut down in order to save him from a Galra soldier, after which Pidge had gathered up his pieces and was working nonstop to try and rebuild him, and Hunk and Coran had traveled to a sentient planet (where Hunk had met HIS soulmate) in order to obtain a crystal to power the Castle of Lions, which was also a space ship. Life had been busy. But that morning, Keith had caught a glimpse of the words imprinted on his arm as they were beginning to fade. He was just barely able to make out the message, and the chicken-scratch writing didn’t help either. But, Keith figured it would be better if his soulmate didn’t hear from him. Maybe the boy would move on with his life and go back to flight school.

            Okay, who was Keith kidding. He knew from talking to this kid that the boy totally believed in the soulmate bond, and that the bond was unbreakable, the one true thing in life. This realization that his NOT answering would only make his soulmate worry had officially made his day worse than it already was with all of the constant reminders from his crewmates and their soulmate bonds. And now he was irritated that the healing pod was taking so long. He needed Lance there so he could let out his anger at someone.

 

            A lot had happened while Lance was out of commission. Apparently, he and the hot-headed Paladin had a bonding moment. Lance remembered it all too well, but refused to acknowledge it because Keith was quite attractive, and Lance was saving himself for his soulmate, no matter how much he flirted with other people. Then he had been told that Pidge was in the process of fixing up her soulmate? Because apparently robots that can somehow have soulmates also have feelings of loyalty and will give up their ‘life’ in order to save their soulmate. He wasn’t saying it was impossible; after all, the universe knew what it was doing, right? Lance just had never heard of a non-human relationship before. But then again, Hunk had found out that his soulmate was an alien who lived in a Galra mine on a living planet… Lance was still processing that part.

            Then came his first meal out of the healing pod. Pidge was a girl now? How could he... she… they?... be a girl? Lance was so confused. He knew that Pidge had some quirks and was never interested in the normal “guy stuff,” but he had just assumed that Pidge was his, no, her own person and hadn’t bothered to question.

            And the castle was a space ship… what more could happen, right? Nothing else in space could possibly faze him after learning all of those things in the span of about one varga. Nothing.

            Lance had no idea.

 

            Keith’s messages from his soulmate never did stop. He got them quite often actually, although he never replied anymore.

            _Took a cool trip to a rock museum today, but ran into a thug who was destroying private property. We iced him, and my friend, the H-man, introduced us to his soulmate. Saved the day. Miss you._

            _Hey, is it Halloween or something? Because I swear I just saw a ghost and it tried to kill me and my friends..._

_Went to the mall today. That was an interesting field trip. I didn’t realize how much I missed video games sometimes._

_I miss you, mí corazón._

_How is the robotics company?_

_How is life?_

_How are you?_

_Do you miss me ever?_

_Meet you one day?_

            Keith tried to ignore the warmth that signaled a new message from his soulmate. He couldn’t get distracted now. Now he was figuring out who he truly was. He didn’t have time to answer love letters from a boy he had never met. He had to stop Zarkon. But he couldn’t harden his heart completely. Late at night, when he was alone, he would spend several ticks just running his fingers over the words on his skin.

            He did miss him. He missed his soulmate more than he ever wanted to admit.

 

            Lance had all but given up hope of hearing back from his soulmate. He didn’t know what he had done, or whether something awful had happened back on Earth, and he preferred not to think about the later… The day the team began to plan for their final attack against Zarkon, Lance felt the warmth of a soulmate message begin to creep across his wrist under his Paladin armor. His heart ached at the thought of what that meant. It was all Lance could do not to shuck off his gauntlets to read the message in the middle of the briefing for his mission with Shiro and Pidge to go rescue some alien scientist. He breathed in deeply, held it, and then exhaled slowly. The message would be there for at least three days. He would see it before it faded… He hoped…

 

            The mission to the prison was not Lance’s favorite one that he had ever been a part of. First the security systems, then the Yupper, then almost blowing the mission entirely because HE took the warden’s pet. But, he felt better about his work on the mission when it was by his sharp-shooting skills that Slav was saved.

            Back on the Castle of Lions, Lance had to stand there as Shiro provided a brief for Allura, Coran, and the members of the Blade of Marmora. He shifted his weight back and forth from foot to foot, fingering the armor that was still covering the first words from his soulmate since he had first joined the Voltron team. Shiro, the ever-observant space dad, took note of Lance’s impatience and sped up the rest of what he had to say. As soon as the Paladins were dismissed, Shiro caught up to Lance, who was practically running down the corridor.

            “Hey, Lance. What’s the big rush?” He managed to snag a hold of Lance’s elbow and pull the younger boy up short.

            Lance’s breath came a little heavier than normal as he turned to face his team leader. “Shiro, I… I haven’t heard from my soulmate since joining Voltron…” The boy’s face fell as he thought about the overwhelming blankness of his skin. “I… I have written to them every few days as often as I could manage it… And right before the mission, I felt a message forming under my armor… Shiro, I have to read it. I have to read it right now.” Lance’s eyes practically begged for him to be set free.

            Shiro’s features softened, as he knew what it felt like to be out of contact with your soulmate. He released the Blue Paladin’s arm. “Do you want me to leave you alone then? I can make sure no one bothers you for a few vargas.”

            “Yes… No...,” came the hesitant reply. “Shiro, what if it’s bad news? What if something happened back on Earth?” Lance was beginning to fret as he frantically was pulling off the arm guards of his suit to reveal the skin on his left wrist.

            Before Lance could see the words written on his skin, Shiro’s metal hand had a hold of the younger boy’s wrist, effectively covering the words inscribed there. The Black Paladin’s voice was soft and even when he spoke. “Lance, take a breath. No matter what happened, you know that your soulmate is alive and able to communicate. You working yourself up before you even know anything is only going to add strain to an already stressful relationship. Ok?” He waited for Lance to nod half-heartedly before letting go and allowing both of them to see the neat script on Lance’s arm that Shiro was all too familiar with.

            _Alive, for now. But do not wait for me. I cannot come back to you. Goodbye forever, mí corazón_


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a seemingly extremely short chapter, and I apologize. But I wanted this moment to happen, and the final chapter starts right after season 2. So you get a short one. But as an apology, I will post the final chapter tomorrow. Promise. Pinky Swear. Cross my Heart and Hope to Die.   
> Thank you for all of your support (and patience). I love getting on and reading the comments and seeing all of the Kudos. They fill my heart with the flutteries.

Anger filled Shiro as he stormed down the corridor after consoling Lance and guiding the boy back to his room. How could Keith talk like that? Didn’t Keith know how much he was hurting his soulmate? Shiro knew. Shiro knew exactly how Lance felt, and he, never in a million years, would have wished that heartache on his worst enemy. 

            His metal fist pounded on the Red Paladin’s door impatiently before he reminded himself that patience yields focus. Shiro’s mentor at the Galaxy Garrison had told him that every time Shiro had crashed the simulator because he was too worried about everyone else. Shiro took a deep breath and tried to calm his rage.

            He knew that Keith and Lance had never exchanged names in their soul bond, and that they had never officially met as soulmates. So, it was not for him to tell them. But he sure as hell was going to find some way to lecture Keith about what exactly the Red Paladin had put his soulmate through.

            A tired and half-dead looking Keith answered the door. His eyes looked red, as though the boy had spent some time crying himself. Shiro glanced down at the other boy’s arm, and saw the finely printed cursive message that had brought him so much anger. He had to mentally remind himself to keep his voice calm as he began to speak.

            “Hey, Keith. Just came to check on you. Are you sure you want to take this mission on board Zarkon’s ship?”

            Keith absentmindedly waved his hand in the air as if to wave away the question. Shiro, took his chance, reaching out to grasp the boy’s wrist and pull it to where he could “read” it.

            “Keith…” He breathed out. “I thought you had an injury, but… Oh, Keith. What did you do?” He looked up into Keith’s eyes that were beginning to show signs of more tears that had not yet been shed.

            Keith released a slow and shaky breath as he averted his eyes. “I had to Shiro… I… I can’t return to him on Earth, not if I have to be here to form Voltron… And I don’t know what is going to happen when we attack… No one knows if we are going to succeed. No one knows if we will live through this. I don’t want my soulmate waiting for me forever when I can never come back…”

            Shiro dropped the boy’s wrist and pulled him still rambling into a hug. “Shhh,” he whispered. “I know you are scared and worried. But trust your soul bond, Keith. The universe knows what it’s doing. Everything will work out right…”

            Keith shoved Shiro away from him, and the Black Paladin stumbled backwards into the corridor. “Don’t give me that shit about soul bonds,” Keith spat. His eyes still brimmed with tears, but they also contained a hatred that Shiro had never before witnessed in his teammate. “My father had a soulmate once. That’s how I was born, but she left him. She left us. I never knew her, and she never wrote to my father. The universe got it wrong. The universe isn’t in charge of me; it isn’t in charge of who I love. I make my own life.”

            Shiro was stunned. He had never met anyone who rejected his soul bond so strongly. “Keith… What about the person whose heart you just broke?” Shiro felt his temper start to boil up inside him again. “Do you have any idea what you could have just done? You don’t know what it feels like to be hopeful for a relationship with your one true love, only to have it snatched from you without a word! You just broke every dream that poor soul ever had.” Shiro knew he may have gone too far, but he was livid. He took a deep breath in and held it a moment when he saw that the tears had already started to flow freely down Keith’s cheeks.

            “I… I do love him, Shiro… I just… I can’t love him. I can’t love him if I am going to be a part of Voltron… I don’t deserve someone like him.”

            Shiro took another deep breath. Patience yields focus, he thought. “One day, you will know that what you’re doing is wrong… One day you will see that the universe was right about you and him… I just hope it isn’t too late to fix things between the two of you…” He hung his head slightly and turned away from the Red Paladin and walked away down the corridor. “I’m sorry, Lance,” he murmured to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

Shiro was gone. The Paladins of Voltron weren’t whole, and everyone was feeling the sting. Lance sat in the common room just staring at the blank wall when he felt a warm tingle spread from his left wrist up his forearm. He almost jumped out of his skin. Lance had thought that he would never feel that warm tingle ever again; he hadn’t expected to ever feel the butterflies in his stomach from the love he felt for his soulmate ever again. But here it was, and moving fast over his skin.

            _Hey,_ the text began. _I know I haven’t been in touch very much, and I’m sorry. I really have missed you these past weeks. I just… I never knew how to tell you this before, so I’m gonna try and tell you it now._ Lance watched as the neat penmanship began to curl its way up his arm as his silent soulmate finally let out their feelings for the first time. _I never wanted to believe in soulmates. I never wanted to believe that I could have one, because of the house I was raised in. So, when you came into my life I didn’t know what to do. And when we started talking, I began to realize just how real a soulmate bond was. But I didn’t want to believe what I could see for my own eyes._ The tingling shifted to his left ankle, and Lance scurried to lift the hem of his pants so that he wouldn’t miss anything his corazón had to say. _I tried to push you away, and I tried to ignore what we had. But tonight, I lost someone who was like a father to me, and I finally realized that I don’t want to lose you too. I just…_ The writing paused.

            Lance began tearing at his many pockets in search of the soul-pen that he knew he always kept on him. But just before he could get the cap off, the familiar warm tingle began to spread over the left side of his chest, the area right above where Lance’s heart pounded wildly inside his ribcage. He practically ran to the closest bathroom facility, yanked off his jacket, and pulled up his shirt.

            There, in the beautiful cursive that Lance had always loved and admired was one last message.

            _My name is Keith._

 

            Lance had no idea what to say when the Paladins gathered for dinner that evening with Allura and Coran. He was speechless when he saw the edge of Keith’s sleeve slide up as the Red Paladin reached for a glass. There, on Keith’s left arm was the neat handwriting that Lance had spent well over two years reading; the handwriting that now adorned Lance’s forearm, leg, and the skin just above his heart, which beat even more rapidly as he looked towards the face of the person he had been dreaming of meeting ever since his mom gave him his first soul-pen.

            Keith caught Lance staring at him and, being the hot-headed grieving teenager that he was, responded with a, “What are you looking at?” that was so cold it could have frozen the heat ray of Keith’s Lion.

            Lance averted his gaze and looked down at his food, still not sure what to do. But he did take every chance he could to sneak a peek at his soulmate who sat across from him in a red jacket and a mullet.

            After dinner, Keith caught Lance in a hallway and practically slammed him up against a wall. “What is your problem? Do you think I’m the reason Shiro is gone? Do you blame me? Is that it?”

Keith was hurting, Lance knew that. “Keith,” he began in the softest and most endearing tone he could manage while pinned against the wall with Keith’s arm across his chest.

“No,” Keith pressed harder. “You listen. You always blame me, but you know what? This time… This time, I… I already know it’s my fault. I couldn’t save him. If I had maybe been a little faster in Zarkon’s ship, then maybe…” Keith’s voice began to crack, and Lance could see the tears beginning to well up in the other boy’s eyes. Keith’s hard shield was starting to crumble. “It’s all my fault,” Keith sniffled as his pressure let up on Lance’s chest and his body slumped down in a crouch on the floor. Lance could hear his teammate sobbing from where he stood.

Slowly, gingerly, Lance knelt down next to the boy who always seemed so angry and so cold. He hesitantly placed his palm on the center of Keith’s back and began to rub small circles like his mother used to do when Lance was young and got hurt.

The two sat like this for nearly a varga before Keith pulled his head out of his arms, tear stains on his face, and sat with his back against the wall. Lance followed his lead and sat next to him.

“Why did you stay,” Keith managed to croak as he looked up at the ceiling of the corridor.

Lance sat silently for a while, contemplating what to say. Because I’m your soulmate, he thought. Because you aren’t to blame… What ended up coming out of his mouth was, “Because that’s what we do on a team. We don’t blame each other for something no one could have known was coming…”

Keith turned his head, eyeing Lance skeptically. “Who are you, and what have you done with the real Lance?”

“This is the real Lance. Only my soulmate gets to see the real Lance. Everyone else gets to see the cocky flirt that I pretend to be…”

“Wait, soulmates…?” Keith’s confused and bewildered expression was there for the briefest of moments before Lance leaned forward, eyes closed, and pressed his lips against the soft lips of the boy he had waited his whole life to finally meet.

When Keith just sat there, Lance pulled himself away, red beginning to spread across his cheeks as he slid up the sleeve of his jacket, showing the other boy the identical message still inked onto both of their skins.

“I finally got to meet you in person,” was all Lance could think to say.

Keith, on the other hand, still stunned lifted his own left arm, looking down at where he knows he wrote those words just earlier that day. In a sudden movement, he pulled the collar of Lance’s t-shirt down and to the side, finding his name written over where Lance’s heart beat with a passion and love that Lance had never felt before. Another sob began to work its way up Keith’s throat.

“Mí Corazón,” Lance murmured as he placed his hand on Keith’s cheek and gently pulled his soulmate into a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all of you who have left me the kudos and comments through the process of this fic coming to life. I really appreciate it, and cannot thank you all enough. It's you guys who make me want to write more and post it. Thanks so much. I hope you enjoyed this roller coaster ride, and I am thinking about what I'm going to do for the next one.


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